Hubert Williams
Hubert Williams was 21 years old, a husband and the father of two children. He was held in the Williamston calaboose in Williamston, South Carolina, when a crowd of more than a hundred people took him from the lockup on the morning of Friday, November 4, 1881. The crowd hanged him from a horse near Wilson's Bridge over the Saluda River in Greenville County. The newspaper account does not establish whether the jailer or officers resisted, gave up the keys or handed him over, because part of the passage is unreadable. A coroner's jury, with Trial Justice Hawthorne acting as coroner, returned a verdict of death by hanging at the hands of persons unknown, and the paper reported that he asked to be buried in the Black burying ground at Greenville and that a Black minister prayed with him before he died.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A coroner's jury returned a verdict that a crowd of persons unknown hanged him after taking him from the Williamston calaboose.
Reported by: coroner's jury (Trial Justice Hawthorne acting as Coroner) (medical examiner or coroner); news reporting of the Williamston hanging (reporters).